In May 2018, My First Skool, the pre-school arm of NTUC (National Trades Union Congress), opened a new Early Years Centre (EYC) at Punggol Central, aimed at children aged two months to four years old.

Conveniently located within walking distance of the Punggol MRT/LRT station and Waterway point, the centre boasts a massive size of 8,785 square metres, and the capacity to accommodate up to 1,000 children.

Meeting the rise in demand for childcare services

That such a massive centre has been built right in the heart of Punggol and Sengkang is not accidental.

Both estates have been found by The Straits Times to contain the highest number of young residents aged four and below.

As of June 2017, Sengkang has the highest number of young children, with 17,660 of its residents aged four and below, while Punggol takes second place with 15,970 young residents.

This has placed a lot of demand on the childcare centres already existing in the region.

Punggol in particular, despite already having 52 childcare centres catering to 6,000 children as of last year, still saw parents reporting a wait of up to six months for their children to be placed in a childcare centre.

Sengkang has also been noted to have many of its childcare centres filled as well.

One parent quoted by The Straits Times stated that he had unsuccessfully tried to enrol his daughter in four different childcare centres, only to receive an offer from none of them.

As such, My First Skool EYC and its massive Punggol campus will go a long way in meeting the increasing demand for childcare services in these towns.

School fees are still the same

According to a spokesperson for My First Skool EYC at Punggol Central, school fees for the new centre are still the same, as with all other centres.

Monthly fees before subsidy will range from S$$1,356.78 to S$1,364.25 for Singaporean families who are enrolling infants between two months and 17 months, and S$712.21 to S$770.40 for children from 18 months to four years' old.

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As the centre is also licensed by the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), both working and non-working mothers, along with single fathers will also be able to apply for a basic subsidy for the centre's fees.

As such, the subsidies are:

Class ratio

Despite the massive size of the centre aimed at holding 1,000 children, the teacher-child ratio has been staggered accordingly to the age of the children, with younger children seeing a higher teacher-child ratio, as seen in the image below:

This means that classes with very young children can have up to two teachers at a time.

So far, 310 children have been enrolled in the centre as of August 2018, with enrolment "on track" to reach the capacity of 1,000.

Top Image by Matthias Ang